Sigma announces 60mm F2.8 for mirrorless and redesigned 30mm F1.4 DC

CP+ 2013: Sigma has announced four additions to its 'Art' range of prime lenses, including a 60mm F2.8 DN lens for mirrorless cameras and an updated 30mm F1.4 DC for APS-C DSLRs. Alongside these are redesigned versions of its 30mm and 19mm F2.8 DN lenses for mirrorless in metal bodies. Like these lenses, the 60mm F2.8 DN features a metal casing and will be available for the Sony E and Micro Four Thirds mounts. It will offer a 90mm equivalent field of view on Sony NEX cameras or 120mm equivalent coverage of Micro Four Thirds bodies. The Sigma 30mm F1.4 DC is a completely redesigned version of the popular normal lens for APS-C DSLRs - it will be available in Canon, Nikon and Sigma mounts. Price and availability details have not been given.

Sigma Corporation announces four new lenses at CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging Show 2013

YOKOHAMA, Japan — Jan. 29, 2013 — Sigma Corporation of America a leading researcher, developer, manufacturer and service provider of some of the world’s most impressive lines of lenses, cameras and flashes, today announced the release of four new lenses for the ART product line, including three lenses for mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras and one lens for DSLR cameras with APS-C size sensors. This announcement comes at the start of the CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging Show 2013 this week in Yokohama, Japan.

The new and updated Sigma lenses include the 30mm F1.4 DC HSM, which will be available in Sigma, Canon and Nikon mounts, and the 30mm F2.8 DN, 19mm F2.8 DN and 60mm F2.8 DN lenses, which are available for both Micro Four Thirds and Sony E-Mount camera systems. Pricing and availability on all of these lenses has yet to be announced.

The 60mm F2.8 DN lens is entirely new to the Sigma lineup, while the 30mm F1.4 DC HSM and the 30mm F2.8 DN and 19mm F2.8 DN lenses are existing focal lengths that have been redesigned with enhanced optical performance and included as part of Sigma’s new Global Visioncategory restructuring. All three DN lenses incorporate telecentric optical designs and a linear, auto focusing motor that ensures accurate and quiet focusing for video recording. They also boast metal exteriors and a simply shaped focus ring, with varying textures to distinguish each part of the lens. In addition, DN users can choose between a black or silver finish to match their favorite equipment.

Sigma 30mm F1.4 DC

“We’re really proud of the super sharp lenses we’ve produced in the past year and these new Art lenses will continue to impress our fans and critics alike. They’re ideal for the landscape, portrait, still-life, close-up and casual photographer who values creative, dramatic outcomes above compactness and multifunction,” said Mark Amir-Hamzeh, president of Sigma Corporation of America. “The lenses are entirely made in Japan and they boast the new product line’s sleek design and enhanced quality control. We’re quite proud of these changes – and additions – to our lens lineup; they’re further evidence of Sigma’s forethought in this fast-moving industry.”

Here are more details on these new lenses from Sigma:

30mm F1.4 DC HSM – Sigma pioneered the large-aperture, APS-C format, standard lens category with its 30mm F1.4 lens in 2005. With new optical configurations of nine elements in eight groups, as well as rounded aperture blades, this updated lens delivers pleasing sharpness and a beautiful bokeh background. Its angle of view is equivalent to 45mm on a 35mm camera (which is similar to that of human vision), its minimum focusing distance is 11.8 inches and its maximum magnification ratio is 1:6.8. The lens’ optimized power distribution helps to minimize field curvature, prevent a loss of image quality at the edges of photographs and produce outstanding image quality. Its double-aspheric lens minimizes spherical distortion, astigmatism and coma, and its rear focus system prevents focus-dependent variation in aberration. Together, the new optimized auto focus (AF) algorithm and rear focusing system ensure smooth and accurate focusing. The new 30mm F1.4 is also compatible with Sigma’s new USB Dock, which will enable firmware updates and focusing adjustments, is expected to be available in coming months.

60mm F2.8 DN - Featuring the natural perspective of mid-range telephoto lenses, together with a shallow depth of field, this lens allows the photographer to capture a single part of a subject with great bokeh effects. It has an angle of view equivalent to 120mm on the Micro Four Thirds system and 90mm on the E-mount system (35mm equivalent focal length). The minimum focusing distance is 19.7 inches; the maximum magnification is 1:7.2. This lens also contains Special Low Dispersion (SLD) glass, which helps minimize axial and transverse chromatic aberration.

Sigma 19mm F2.8 DN – This high-performance, wide-angle telephoto lens has an angle of view equivalent to 38mm on the Micro Four Thirds system and 28.5mm on the E-mount system (35mm equivalent focal length). As a wide-angle lens with excellent mobility, it is ideal for studio photography, architecture and starry skies. Its minimum focusing distance is 7.9 inches and its maximum magnification is 1:7.4.

Sigma 30mm F2.8 DN – This high-performance, standard telephoto lens has an angle of view equivalent to 60mm on the Micro Four Thirds system and 45mm on the E-mount system (35mm equivalent focal length). This lens, which is perfect for casual and formal portraiture, documentary photography, travelogues and everyday shooting, includes a double-sided aspherical lens that enhances its optical performance. Its minimum focusing distance of 11.8 inches and its maximum magnification is 1:8.1.

@TTMartin: The current version is great in the center but fairly weak in the corners. Wide open at 1.4 it is sharper in the center than canon 35mm 1.4L @ 1.4. However the corners are weak and don't improve much even when you stop down. Also while the center performance is great for f1.4, it does not become very sharp when stopped down. It is a lens which primarily shines in the f1.4-f2 range. If you routinely need to use these apertures then it is an excellent choice. If you mostly shoot stopped down or if you are looking for corner to corner sharpness, then it is not for you. It is far from being optically perfect but for those who need a fast normal lens for their APS-DSLRs, it is great performer. But yes I hope that they have improved the corners and stopped down performance - that will make it much more desirable as an APS-C normal lens.

30mm 1.4 is definitely a new optical design (old one was 7 elements in 7 groups with a maximum magnification of 0.09x. The new one is 9 elements in 8 groups with a 0.15x max magnification). Not sure about the 30mm and 19mm DN lenses, though Sigma states that these have also been optically redesigned.

If Sigma would make a SHARP(like their 35mm 1.4) 24mm 1.4, 30/32mm 1.4 and a 60mm 1.4 for Fuji,NEX, Samsung and M43(all NON IS, if you cant hand hold a 24/30/60mm steady, then you have problems) They would make a KILLING.

They would have the fastest native lenses for NEX.

Of coarse lets say at the same prices of the 50mm 1.8 os and 35mm 1.8 os and 599 for the 24mm 1.4

What do you with f2.8? Stopping down a f1.4 has the same effect and you have two stops reserve, albeit with less performance. And even wide open the f1.4 is quite good. Some people really talk a lot of nonsense.

I liked my Nikon 35mm 1.8 when I had it. However it is a bit too long for my liking as a "normal" prime. 30mm is a bit wider and for me a more useful general-purpose FL. Plus the extra half stop of light and DOF control doesn't hurt either.

"telephoto" is often used loosely to denote any lenses with long focal lengths, but when used strictly, is the technical term for one particular kind of optical design. This design is what allows a "600mm focal length" lens to be sized much less than 600mm long physically, for example - and this outcome is most useful for long lenses; but can apply for short focal lengths too.

Why do you have the crop factor as 2x for the 60 and 1.5x for the 30?also, the crop factor affects the aperture also, not just the focal length. on MFT -> 60 f/2.8 = 120 f/5.6 on FFon E-mount -> 60 f/2.8 = 90 f/4.2 on FF

The crop factor for the nex 60 is indeed incorrect but the crop factor does not affect the aperture. The aperture is a physical characteristics of the lens that obviously can't change. The 60 is an F2.8 lens whatever you mount it on.

Put another way if you put a 60mm F2.8 lens on a FF camera and cropped the result to aps-c size the results would exactly the same as a shot with the same lens on a aps-c camera. You would not have been using a 90mm F4.2 lens because you cropped the result.

"What is the point of f/2.8 primes again?"Good contrast, sharpness, with good object separation with usable DoF up close and far, but without the "marketing" advantages of faster lenses.

"And encasing the cheap glass in metal?"If cheap glass can deliver quality, would it warrant anything but praise? The Sigma 30mm /2.8 is a superb piece of glass for $200 and if this 60/2.8 follows the tradition, I'd say... kudos, Sigma.

Agree with both these followup comments - the 30/1.4 makes much more sense for a crop dSLR. How long ago did Canon introduce the EF-S range? And we still don't have small & fast 30-35mm standard prime in the Canon EF-S range! Instead Canon would like crop camera users to fork out for the 35L. Well done Sigma!

@suave: It is all relative of course. Being 2.5" compared to 3.7" for the 35mm 1.4, it is much smaller. But yes it is still a fairly chunky lens - thats the curse of the fact that the APS-C cameras share the mount with full frame cameras. So even though 30mm 1.4 is a "normal" prime for APS-C, its construction has to be more like wide-angle DSLR lenses and hence the extra heft.

@Admin: Text says 30/1.4 comes for Nikon, Canon, Sigma; table says Four Thirds, Pentax, Sony, too, which is probably in error? (While I would be glad to hear otherwise, I think Sigma has completely stopped making Four Thirds lenses?)

Anyway, it's good to see Sigma come up with more and more quality stuff, and for the mirrorless systems, too. I don't care for their new metal casing, though. I found the plastic versions already to be nice and solid.

And I'm somewhat surprised at their introducing a 60/2.8 non-macro lens, after their latest DP camera came with a 50/2.8 macro which I would have expected to be offered seperately just like the 19mm and 30mm lenses used to be DP lenses in the first place...

They still do the same? Copy&paste? Like with A99 where we had 5 pages of people bashing Sony simply because some "redactor" copy&pasted entire specs table of A900 into A99?gash.... this website goes doooowwwwnnn....

The 30-1.4 is not an E-mount lens, it is a full DX lens for apsc dslrs, in 4/3, Nikon, Sony, Sigma, Canon, mounts. The 4/3 is the full sized 4/3, not the micro 4/3 found on mirrorless 4/3 cameras like OMD or Pen.

But no optical stabilisation. So no great incentive to replace the already good 19mm and excellent 30mm (on NEX). The 60mm (pity not a tad longer) would have benefited from stabilisation. Now I would be pleased if Sigma produced a 12mm f2.8 for NEX.

"The 60mm (pity not a tad longer) would have benefited from stabilisation."That is a good point. It will limit its low light capabilities as 1/90s shutter speed will be rather restrictive which isn't much of an issue with 30mm/2.8 and not at all with 19mm. But at 60mm, it will be. Sigma has an excellent OS that should have been used otherwise, it lacks both OSS and a faster aperture compared to Sony 50/1.8 OSS (an excellent lens).

The length may be a result of trying to give it closer focusing distance and if that is the case, I would have preferred compromising some of the MFD for size.

Agreed on the stabilisation, especially since F2.8.I can happily live with the 60mm, but where is the 21-24mm (35mm equivalent)?Perhaps they don't want to go head to head with the (IMHO) overpriced CZ 24?

we need a 30/1.4 and a 19/1.4 or 1.2, not a 2.8. The 2 lenses in 2.8 are good, but too slow. The 30/1.4 for dslr make a huge tandem with NEX and adapters, only problem is the bulky size. In E-Mount with AF it would be the absolute hammer. In this matter, Sigma plays Sony's game, the 20/2.8 and 16/2.8 seem to inspire them. Toooooo slow, is that hard to understand. And those who make fast ones use 35 mm, what is a bit too long again, 30 is better, and 20 is ok too.

There must be a reason. Perhaps it has something to do with the very short flange distance that prevents them from making a small prime? Perhaps they'd need to make the lens much larger in order for it to be good with the E-mount? I really don't know, but since it's not advantageous for Sigma to create a lens that doesn't sell due to poor specs, I'd have to assume that there's a reason for the slow primes on offer by both Sony and Sigma.

It's also the reason I would never buy a NEX system camera, and opted for the Fuji X-Pro 1.

@nawkwai: those can't be the reasons, because Olympus makes a 12mm-f/2.0 and Panasonic makes a 20mm-f/1.7 pancake lens; my bet is that faster lenses would be considerably more expensive and Sigma is unwilling to manufacture them.

I own the older Sigma 30mm f/1.4; its main problem is severe red/blue fringing everywhere but very near the center at f/1.4, which really hurts it for night shooting. Which is mainly what I wanted the f/1.4 for in the first place.

Hope they've addressed that. 30mm is just right for an APS-C camera; feels like a 50mm lens, pretty much.

Zeiss has a 24-1,8 for the Nex, i don't think that another 1.4 would make sense. A 20-1,4 would, for sure. I would like to see a Nokton, a 0,95 in 24 mm or even 20, all manufacturerers focus on 35 mm, mainly for the 4/3 system.